Amber Alerts have proven successful in state all but once

May 02, 2006

SEYMOUR, Ind. (AP) -- The Amber Alert that ended last week with the return of a 2-year-old girl to her mother and the fatal shooting of her father by police officers made her the 23rd child safely found since Indiana's program started in 2002. The only child death involved in the 19 alerts issued during that time happened just a short distance from where Andrea Jordan Evans was found Thursday, state officials said. That was last year's abduction and murder of 10-year-old Katie Collman of Crothersville, whose body was found in a creek a few miles from Seymour. Anthony Ray Stockelman was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for Katie's January 2005 death. His sentencing came six days before the alert was issued for Andrea Evans. The Amber Alert program has been "extremely successful" so far in Indiana, said Andre Clark, program director of Indiana Missing Children Clearinghouse, which is operated by the state police. "There's no way any program can have 100 percent success, but we really want it to be in our case," Clark said. After each Amber Alert, the agency reviews how the alert was handled by police departments. Clark said it would take a few weeks for the review of the alert issued for Andrea Evans after her mother reported on Wednesday that her husband, Thomas J. Evans, had bound and beaten her and taken the child from their home in the city midway between Indianapolis and Louisville, Ky. Meanwhile, an autopsy found that Thomas Evans died from a bullet wound to the chest as he was shot numerous times during Thursday's confrontation with police officers along Indiana 11 just north of Seymour, Jackson County Coroner Andy Rumph said. Evans, 45, also suffered multiple nonlethal wounds to his arms and legs, but Rumph said it was not immediately determined how many times he was shot as some bullets might have caused more than one wound. The three officers involved in the shooting -- state Trooper Mike Bailey and Seymour officers Jennifer Johnson and Ian McPherson -- were placed on administrative leave until a review was completed, police said. The investigation's findings will be turned over to county Prosecutor Steve Pierson to consider whether the officers acted appropriately. If he has doubts, Pierson said, the case would likely be given to a special prosecutor. "I don't have an opinion right now," Pierson said of the shooting. "All I know is we've got a dead guy, and that's a tragedy." The only injury among the police officers was a minor hand wound Bailey suffered when his cruiser collided with Evans' car, police said.